Information for Travelers to Pago Pago, American Samoa

Where is American Samoa?

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American Samoa is a group of tiny islands in the South Pacific Ocean. All addresses in American Samoa are Pago Pago, American Samoa or Pago Pago, AS 96799, for the post office. The international airport designation is PPG, sort of an acronym for Pago Pago.

Of course, the next question is "where is American Samoa?" The best answer to that question is "about 2,575 miles (4,144 Km) south of Hawaii". It could also be said to be about 2034 miles (3274 km) north, northeast or New Zealand. The most accurate answer is 14.30deg S, 170.70deg W. The easy answer is "right in the center of the South Pacific Ocean and a long way from anywhere".

Many get confused about island locations and about the size of the Pacific Ocean. American Samoa is not near Guam. In fact, it is over 3,600 miles (5797 km) from Guam. The Pacific Ocean is about 64 million square miles (165.25 sq km) and contains about 30,000 islands, give or take a few thousand. The total population of the small Pacific island nations is only about 3,000,000, if you don't count Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand.

We feel it is best to use Pago Pago as the brand for the tourist industry of American Samoa. The political name remains American Samoa. But, the fun tourism name is Pago Pago. Just trying to pronounce Pago Pago is fun. And, most of all, Pago Pago certainly sounds a lot more interesting and exotic than American Samoa.

This site is a community effort to bring quality information on American Samoa to the traveling public and to give the local tourism stakeholders an opportunity to participate. We welcome your input and invite you to gain full editing access to selected parts of the site. To learn more about how to get involved, contact us.